Harold Kroto

He was born Harold Krotoschiner in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England. Kroto believes that the city of Krotoszyn (spelled Krotoschin when the area belonged to Germany) in Poland...(?) The origin of his father's family is Bojanowo, and of his mother, Berlin. Both his parents were born in Berlin, Germany and came to Britain in their 30s as refugees; Kroto's father was Jewish and so they needed to escape the Nazis. He was raised in Bolton, Lancashire, England. He attended Bolton School in the town, where he was a contemporary of (Sir) Ian McKellan, aka "Gandalf". In 1955 the family name was shortened to Kroto.

As a child, he became fascinated by a Meccano set. Kroto credits Maccano — amongst other things — with developing skills useful in scientific research. He was raised Jewish, but the religion never made any sense to him. He now claims to have four "religions": humanism, atheism, amnesty-internationalism and humourism. He developed an interest in chemistry, physics, and mathematics in secondary school, and because his chemistry teacher (Harry Heaney - who subsequently became a University Professor)in the sixth form (the last year of secondary school) felt that the University of Sheffield had the best chemistry department in the United Kingdom, he went to Sheffield.

In 1961 he took a first class B. Sc honours degree at Sheffield, followed by a Ph. D at the same institution in 1964. His doctoral research involved high-resolution electronic spectra of free radicals produced by flash photolysis (breaking of chemical bonds by light). Among other things such as making the first phosphaalkenes (compounds with carbon phosphorus double bonds), his doctoral studies included some unpublished research on carbon suboxide, O=C=C=C=O, and this led to a general interest in molecules containing chains of carbon atoms with numerous multiple bonds. He started his work with an interest in organic chemistry, but when he learned about spectroscopy it inclined him to quantum chemistry.

In 1963 he married Margaret Henrietta Hunter.

After postdoctoral research at the National Research Council in Canada and Bell Laboratories in the United States of America he began teaching and research at the University of Sussex in England in 1967. He became a full professor in 1985, and a Royal Society Research Professor in 1991–2001.

In the 1970s he launched a research program at Sussex to look for carbon chains in interstellar space. Earlier studies had detected the molecule cyanoacetylene, H-C=C-C=N. Kroto's group searched for spectral evidence of longer similar molecules such as cyanobutadiyne, H-C=C-C=C-C=N and cyanohexatriyne, H-C=C-C=C-C=C-C=N, and found them in 1975-1978. Trying to explain them led to the discovery of the C₆₀ molecule. (See buckminsterfullerene.) He heard of laser spectroscopy work being done by Richard Smalley and Robert Curl at Rice University in Texas. He suggested that they should use the Rice apparatus to simulate the carbon chemistry that occurs in the atmosphere of a carbon star. The experiment carried out in Sept 1985 not only proved that carbon stars could produce the chains but revealed an amazing, serendipitous result - the totally unexpected existence of the C₆₀ species. The three scientists carried out the work with grad. students Jim Heath (now a full Professor at Cal. Tech.), Sean O'Brien (now at Texas Instruments), and Yuan Liu (now at Oak Rdge). The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was shared by Curl, Kroto and Smalley in 1996.

Kroto was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1990, and awarded a knighthood (becoming Sir Harold Kroto) in 1996. Later that year he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 2004 he won the Copley Medal of the Royal Society.

In 1995 he set up the Vega Science Trust (www.vega.org.uk) to create high quality science films for TV and Internet Broadcast. Vega has produced some 80 programmes of which 50 have been broadcast on BBC TV in the late-night slots. Viewing figures vary from 600,000 to 300,000.

His alma mater, Sheffield University awarded him with an honourary doctorate in 1995 at the undergraduate degree congregation.

He presently carries out research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.